Written by Emma (Teach Starter)
Are you facing the new challenge of teaching remotely? School closures and absent students mean that a lot of teachers are being presented with a unique opportunity – to undertake the weird and wonderful task of online teaching!
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Learning virtually comes with a whole range of ups and downs. From mastering technology to helping students concentrate and understand lessons from afar, it’s no surprise that a lot of teachers are feeling unsure about how to teach online. In these strange times, students may need the comfort of regular learning – online learning is a brilliant way to provide this. So, how do we help our students learn at home and minimise the disruption to their education? And how can we teach when we can’t be in the classroom?
How to Teach Online Classes – Online Lesson Builder
Home learning doesn’t have to be scary. We’ve developed a wonderful online tool for teaching from home that will keep your students engaged and make planning online lessons a breeze. Please welcome the Online Lesson Builder.
Our builder lets you create as many lessons as you desire. You can even access them all from the easy-to-navigate hub! Not only this but once you’ve shared your lessons with your students, they’ll be able to access and download the Teach Starter resources without needing to create a Teach Starter account.
Upload Lesson Prompts for Online Learning
There are many great things about having a virtual classroom. Other than its ability to connect us with our students from afar, that is!
Digital classrooms enable us to delve into the internet and share interesting and wonderful stimulus videos and images with our students. With the online lesson builder, you can easily upload videos or images. This means that you can record a lesson from home, then upload and share it with your students.
Upload lesson instructions with the online lesson builder
If you wish to share a video from YouTube, it can also be easily embedded in the lesson builder.
You can also share lesson content by inputting text. And don’t forget, you may want to hyperlink to relevant websites!
Attach Teach Starter Resources to Learn at Home
To give context to your lesson, you’ll need engaging and fun teaching resources. Don’t worry, we have those in spades!
You can upload a number of Teach Starter resources to your digital lessons with the online lesson builder. Simply search for the resource you want to add, and it will sync automatically. No need for you to download it to your own computer and re-upload – it’s a time-saver!
The wonderful thing about being able to share a number of resources in one lesson is that you can easily differentiate for your students. Simply put any differentiation instructions in your lesson text and upload all the relevant resources.
Share Your Online Lesson
When your lesson is ready to go, you can share it with all the students who are learning from home. You can share directly to Google Classroom from the online lesson builder and your students can download their resources at home! Not using Google Classroom? That’s no problem either.
Simply share the URL in the bar on the right side of the lesson editor and supply your students with the unique 4-digit code. Simple as that.
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This means all your lesson content will be secure, as only students with the pin and URL will have access.
How Else Can We Help You?
In times of uncertainty, it’s comforting to know that we can educate the students in our care with as little disruption as possible. That’s why you can rely on Teach Starter to be there for you with everything you need to get you through this challenging time. We’ve put together a number of options to make this period as easy for teachers and students as possible.
For more information, read our blog COVID-19: Teach Starter’s Support for Schools, Teachers, Parents & Students Affected
Cover Photo: Tatyana Vyc/shutterstock.com
I love this. I just recorded using the laptop webcam and uploaded. Can you show/explain the view from the student/parent perspective. What does it look like for them when they log in? Where do they click to get started?
Victoria Turnbull · Apr 14th, 2020
That sounds like a fantastic idea Victoria! We will include a demonstration in this blog and update you once it has been added. Thanks so much for your comment.
Emma (Teach Starter) · Apr 14th, 2020
This is such a great tool! Just a quick question, is there any way to edit the teaching resources added to the lesson? I would like to upload a worksheet to my lesson but don’t want the students to see the answer page.
Gretta Ros · Apr 11th, 2020
Hi Gretta,
Thank you so much for your feedback! We are glad you are enjoying our feature. At this point in time, you are not able to edit the teaching resources to remove the answer sheet before you save it to your lesson. However, if you access our “Request a Resource/Edit” function (https://www.teachstarter.com/request-a-resource/) then you can put through a request for a version without answers. Otherwise, I might suggest encouraging your students to self-check their work with the answers once they have completed the activity. If we can assist in any other way please don’t hesitate to ask.
Emma (Teach Starter) · Apr 14th, 2020
Do they only need the one code to login to see all the lessons, or will they need a code for every lesson that I create?
Emma · Mar 31st, 2020
Hi Emma,
Thank you for your question! Each lesson generates a unique code. This way, you can differentiate by sending out different lessons to different students. We hope this answers your question! Please let me know if we can help in any other way.
Emma (Teach Starter) · Mar 31st, 2020
May I please ask if there is a way in which the students can submit their work in through this same program?
Monika Baleska · Mar 29th, 2020
Hi Monika,
At this point in time there is no function in our Lesson Builder to receive student work. Please let me know if we can help in any other way!
Emma (Teach Starter) · Mar 31st, 2020
Wow this is amazing, I can’t wait to use, it. Thank you!
Magda Hasapopoulos · Mar 29th, 2020
Hi Magda,
Thank you for your feedback! We’re glad to hear you like the resource!
Paul (Teach Starter) · Mar 29th, 2020
Can we use these lessons in Microsoft Teams?
Jenni Deuter · Mar 28th, 2020
Was thinking the same thing! (Please say yes!)
Elizabeth Briske · Mar 29th, 2020
Hi Jenni,
Thank you for your comment. At this point in time you can only edit and share the lessons if you are the teacher who owns the login. However, as I’m sure you’re trying to share the teaching load with your teams, you can provide the lesson URL and code to your teaching partners to share with their students. We hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions!
Emma (Teach Starter) · Mar 31st, 2020
Thank you for creating this resource. I am looking forward to using it
Janine Dannenberg · Mar 28th, 2020
Hi Janine,
Thank you for your feedback! We’re glad to hear you like the resource!
Paul (Teach Starter) · Mar 29th, 2020